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Screaming in Silence

So far I have nearly finished my first book this semester, which was Columbine by Dave Cullen. This book had around 500 pages and many times is difficult to read. But, this school year I want to challenge myself by reading novels that reflect important issues people tend to ignore. I also really want to start using the time I use for social media, to be used as reading time aswell. One way I plan to maintain these goals is by keeping track of how much I read per day and making times specificly just for reading.
In the novel I Am Malala, by Malala Yousafzai, a young girl is shot in the head on her way to school. She talks about the struggles her family-particularly her father faces with educating girls in area with strict Islamic laws and the Taliban within their community. Throughout the book I noticed the lack of women's rights that Malala and other women experienced in this story. This book really opened my eyes for so many things I take for granted, from going to the grocery store by myself to having the opprotunity to have any education at all.
In the begining of the book, Malala describes a new leader coming into her community and bringing in new Islamic laws that significantly reduce womens rights. His name is General Zia and he is very firm over his tradtional beliefs. In one passage Malala details the new Islamic laws that General Zia created which wounded women within their community by "But General Zia brought in new Islamic laws which reduced a womens evidence in court to only half of that man's. Soon our prisons were full of cases like that of a thirteen-year old girl who was raped and became pregnant and was sent to prison for adultery because she couldn't produce four male witnesses to prove it was a crime. A woman couldn't even hold a bank account without a man's permission (...) -but Zia made our female hockey players wear baggy trousers instead of shorts and stopped women playing some sports altogether.” (31) Malala's story raised great concern for the women in her community. For a child to be sent to prison for a crime she didn't commit, showed the lack of justice woman faced. All laws prove a lack of womens rights in her area. She then also describes several other stories that detail how these strict rules on women also affect men aswell. One story includes "We heard the Talabian had attacked a shopkeeper because, an unaccompanied woman was looking at the lipsticks in his beauty shop. ' There is a banner in the market saying women are not allowed to be in your shop unaccompanied by a male relative and you have defied us' they said. He was badly beaten and nobody heled him." (169-170) The reason I choose these passages because it provides evidence of the extensive power the Taliban and General Zia have over Malala's people.Both also show the lack of basic rights for women,rights that movements like #MeToo have been fighting for.To fight for womans rights, is to fight for human rights.
It has always been known about the controversy involving actors and actresses receiving roles in an inappropriate mannor. It has been speculated for years, but no one ever did anything about. No one ever spoke up about what what happening. At least not untill the movement #MeToo, this movement brought to light the hundreds of stories of sexual assault in Hollywood. People finnaly felt they had an outlet to share their stories and spread awareness to end sexual assult in Hollywood. Amazingly enough the #MeToo movment lead to members being named by TIMES Magazine as "Persons of the Year".In the article it was revealed that the entire #MeToo movement wasn't started untill one actress, Rose McGowan,who spoke out against Director Harvey Wienstein years after the assault took place.It caused a snowball effect, which lead to even more stories to be told.Just like Malala, whos bravery lead others to speak out against the Taliban and fight for justice. Both movements have raised national recognition, from the TIMES nameing memebers of the #Metoo movment as "Persons of the Year" in 2017, to Malala winning the Nobel Peace Prize. This only highlights the need for more of women's rights, but it also displays how one voice can lead to immense change. That even when one act of bravery,can pilot to thousands.

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